Telephone network capabilities have advanced in recent years to include enhanced call routing and completion functions as well as to provide various new information communication services. Such functions and services can now be delivered at great speed and efficiency, even as the volume of network traffic continues to increase at a significant rate. Call transaction data, i.e., information associated with each call, are commonly used to support call processing and to provide accurate billing information.
Various telecommunication configurations have been developed to archive telephone transaction information. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,474 to Miller et al. discloses a technique for archiving telephone transaction information for inbound and outbound calls. A programmable interface is located between a work station and an archive server that automatically stores information derived from a telephone transaction in a database of records having a plurality of category fields. A host access table, stored in a memory in the workstation, contains programmable commands. An interface program, stored in the workstation memory, executes the commands in the host access table, to perform interfacing functions between the workstation and the archive server, as well as to perform interfacing functions between the host application program and the telephone network. The system utilizes automatic number identification (ANI) to obtain archivable data about the call from the telephone system, from the host computer, and from the customer service agent at the workstation. Such data may be telephone numbers provided by the host computer to the workstation for initiating call placement to the customer's telephone. Each source of data can be automatically archived in the archive server for future billing, auditing and management functions.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,231,593 and 5,243,543 to Notess disclose a system for collecting and displaying statistical data for a plurality of local area networks (LANs). Data is collected from remote nodes, each of which is attached to a respective LAN. A LAN driver intercepts all records on the LAN. The records are sent to a collector process where statistics are accumulated into a shared memory area and then transferred to an archive process in a management node. The archiver writes the statistics to a history file and compresses the data. Sampling rates are provided for sampling the various compressed data.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,087 to Gerber discloses a system that monitors telephone usage. Various events can be reported to a management information system. These events deal with the length of each call, the length of time that a party was placed on hold, and the telephone number of the other party. The system monitors a line that the telephone company switching system identifies with the directory number to be monitored. Information thereby obtained is provided to a system administrator so that telephone activities of employees, for example, can be monitored in real time.
While existing arrangements permit the gathering of call transaction information for administrative purposes, such as monitoring, processing control and billing, a need exists for making call usage information available to a subscriber in a context that is customized to fulfill the subscriber's particular concerns. For example, subscribers who advertise in the yellow pages or in media campaigns would benefit from a knowledge of how effective such advertising is in helping business. Information such as total volume of incoming calls, and a statistical breakdown of such volume on the bases of day of week, time of day or geographical area of origin for calls placed to the subscriber number during a prescribed time period would be of significant importance. Such information further could be used to develop a statistical demographic representation of the incoming calling population.
Conventionally, however, only telephone bills for phone usage are provided to the subscriber on a periodic basis. Information, such as time, date, length of call, and directory number of the line to which the subscriber was connected, are itemized to explain phone usage charges. Calls so identified are those for which charges are incurred, predominantly outgoing calls and incoming calls for which the subscriber has authorized payment. There is no routine report format for incoming calls that are not being charged to the subscriber. Telephone bills conventionally do not present a breakdown of number and percentage of calls placed to the subscriber by predefined categories. The advertising subscriber has no means to determine total incoming call volume, or the times and places at which the calls are most frequently placed.
Moreover, information about incoming call attempts that may not have been completed would be of significant interest. For example, callers who are placed in a queue during times of call overload may terminate the call before completion to the subscriber station. Attempted calls, even if not completed, are a factor in the measure of advertising effectiveness.
Reports that qualify incoming calls in a finer breakdown also are not conventionally available. In the advertiser illustration, a report containing information in which received incoming calls are classified by the callers' intended purposes would be beneficial to the advertising subscriber. Examples of such categories include calls made for pricing information, calls in which purchase orders were placed, and calls in which reservations were placed. Information comparing the number of repeat callers versus first time callers would provide a basis for evaluating advertising effectiveness. Such effectiveness would be enhanced further by the ability to provide the subscriber, for each call having the caller's consent, information such as the caller's name and address. This information can be used for future follow-up mailing promotions. Systems of the prior art do not unobtrusively provide such information.